3D printing for jewellery: masters, patterns and finished metal
Printing changes jewellery work in one specific way: it makes a one-off shape affordable to produce. It does not replace casting, stone setting or a bench jeweller. This page is explicit about which half of that sentence applies to you.
There are two distinct jobs people mean when they ask about 3D printing jewellery. One is producing a pattern that a caster will use to make a mould. The other is producing the finished piece itself, in metal, without casting at all.
Both are possible here, and they have different constraints. Neither includes setting stones, and neither includes precious metals.
What these actually cost
Four reference objects, quoted by the same pricing engine the configurator and checkout use. Product price only; shipping is a flat $7.99 per order, free over $50. A real model is quoted on its own volume, so treat these as the shape of the price rather than an exact match.
20 mm resin master
$0.16
Standard Resin · SLA/DLP · raw finish · 1 g · Desktop 3D Printing
A pattern for your caster. The print itself costs cents; the money in this workflow is in the casting, the metal and the bench time.
20 mm stainless ring
$1.41
Stainless Steel · CNC · raw finish · 5 g · Desktop 3D Printing
Finished metal with no casting step, around five grams. Heavier and harder than a cast piece of the same shape.
30 mm stainless pendant, plated
$28.56
Stainless Steel · CNC · Plating · 13 g · Desktop 3D Printing
Notice that plating, not metal, is most of the price. It is the only finish restricted to metal and the only route to a mirror surface here.
40 mm titanium pendant
$14.20
Titanium · CNC · Sanding · 14 g · Desktop 3D Printing
Titanium carries the highest rate per cm³ of any material here and weighs about half what stainless does.
Weights are computed from the material density, not weighed. Lead time follows size — see the table below. Full rate table on the cost guide.
Which material, and why
Standard Resin
$0.25/cm³ · SLA/DLP · up to 400 mm
High-detail surface for patterns and masters. Detail is the reason resin exists in this workflow, and rings and pendants are almost entirely detail.
Stainless Steel
$2.20/cm³ · CNC · up to 1200 mm
The cheapest metal here that looks like jewellery, and hard enough to hold an edge. Can be plated for a mirror finish.
Titanium
$3.50/cm³ · CNC · up to 500 mm
Light, corrosion-proof and warm grey rather than bright. Correct for pieces meant to be worn against skin continuously.
Aluminum
$1.20/cm³ · CNC · up to 1200 mm
Lightest option, easily machined into thin sections. Softer than the other two metals, so better for pendants than for rings.
Sizes, and what each one means in practice
| Longest edge | What it is for |
|---|---|
| 15–20 mm | Ring band, stud, small charm. Where resin detail matters most. |
| 25–40 mm | Pendant, brooch, cufflink. Comfortable size for CNC metal. |
| 50–80 mm | Large pendant, belt buckle, statement piece. |
| 100 mm+ | Display pieces and sculptural jewellery, not worn weight. |
The configurator accepts anything from 10 mm to 2000 mm on the longest edge. Price scales with volume, so doubling an edge roughly multiplies material cost by eight before volume tiers soften it.
What this platform does not do
It does not cast. It does not set stones. It does not work in gold, silver or platinum. If your piece depends on any of those, the printed object is an input to a jeweller’s bench rather than the finished article, and the sequence is: print a pattern, have it cast and finished by a caster, have the stones set by a jeweller.
Pattern or finished piece: pick one and price it
A resin pattern is a means to an end and should be as cheap as the detail allows. A finished metal piece is the end, and the cost is dominated by the metal rate and the density: stainless is $2.20 per cm³ at a density of 8.0, titanium is $3.50 per cm³ at 4.51, so a titanium piece can be the more expensive rate and the lighter object at once.
Burnout is your caster’s call, not ours
Whether a printed resin pattern can be burned out cleanly depends on the resin chemistry and on the caster’s invested mould process. Castable resins exist for exactly this reason, and the standard resin used for visual models is not automatically one of them. Confirm the resin type with your caster before committing to a mould, because a failed burnout destroys the mould as well as the pattern.
Lead time is set by size
Under 300 mm: desktop printing, 5–8 days. 300–800 mm: industrial printing, 8–14 days. 800–1500 mm: segmented printing and assembly, 14–21 days. Above 1500 mm: large-format CNC or segmented casting, 18–28 days. These are production windows and do not include shipping transit.
Frequently asked questions
Can you print in gold or silver?
No. Neither is available on this platform. The metals offered are aluminium, tool steel, stainless steel and titanium, all CNC-machined. Precious metal work has to go through a caster.
Is the printed metal piece as good as a cast one?
It is different. CNC machining produces a solid, dimensionally accurate part with no porosity, which is better than casting for structural thin sections. Casting wins where you need undercuts, hollow interiors or a precious alloy. Which one is correct depends entirely on the design.
What does plating add?
A mirror-like reflective metal coating. It is the only finish here restricted to metals, it carries the highest base fee of any finish, and it is the way to get a polished jewellery surface out of a machined part that would otherwise be matte.
How fine can the detail be?
Resin holds finer detail than any other material on the platform, and resin is capped at 400 mm longest edge. In practice, ring and pendant scale is well inside that, and the limiting factor is your model rather than the process.
Can I order one piece, or is there a minimum?
One. There is no minimum order and no setup fee; the quote is volume of material plus finish plus shipping. Quantities of five or more take 10% off, which is a small-run advantage rather than a production one.
Other use cases
Print the pattern, or print the piece
Both start the same way: a model and a size. Set the longest edge and the quote updates with the material you choose.